Angel Beats!

Submission 9,016

About

Angel Beats! (Japanese: エンジェルビーツ!, _Enjeru Bītsu!) is a japanese light novel series created by Jun Maeda on November, 2009, and later adapted into an anime series on April 3rd, 2010. Since its creation, the series has gathered a significant fanbase due to its tragic theme and notable ending.

Plot

The story follows Yuzuru Otonashi, a young boy who lost his memory after passing away. He is then enrolled into the afterlife High school which is a limbo like state where people who still have worldly attachments must let go before passing on to the afterlife. Otonashi is then recruited into the Afterlife Battlefront, an organization with a purpose to defeat the student council president for supposedly working for God, who they blame for their negative experiences when they were still alive.

History

The series began as a light novel series under the title "Angel Beats! Track Zero" which was written by Jun Maeda, illustrated by GotoP, and published by ASCII Media Works on Dengeki G's Magazine from November of 2009 to May of 2010. The series was adapted into an anime by P.A.Works and aired from April 3rd to June 26th 2010 with 13 episodes. The series also spawn several spin off manga series and an OVA which was released December 22nd, 2010.

Reception

Angel Beats! has gained many positive reviews ever since its release. People praise the series for its characters, creative plot, and emotional scenes. The anime also received a similar response, but was criticized for being too short at only 13 episodes. The anime adaptation currently holds an 8.1 user rating on IMDb^[1], an 8.5 user rating on MyAnimeList^[2], and holds an excellent user vote on Anime News Network.^[3]

Online Presence

Since the airing of the anime, the series has gain a notable online following with posts and discussion appearing in various sites such as 4Chan's /a/ board^[4], Anime News Network^[5], Crunchyroll^[6], and Tumblr.^[7] A Facebook page dedicated to the series has gathered more than 248.000 as of April, 2015.^[8] On Fanfiction, typing the keyword "Angel Beats" will yield more than 730 results^[9] while typing on Archive of Our Own would yieled 33 results worth of fanfics.^[10] On DeviantArt, typing the keyword "Angel Beats" would yield more than 27.000 results^[11] while on pixiv, typing the keyword would yield more than 14.000 results.^[12]